Thats just sad...

In case anyone had any doubt, this response by LL should help confirm the delusional, self-congratulatory state they are operating under...

/invalid_link.html

Let's see, she clearly commuicated the steps they are taking to address the problems, how they are improving communication, and their efforts so far. What more would you have her do? Shed a little blood? 1.7 was a horrible upgrade, no doubt - but they are taking steps to address the problems as quickly as they can. They have dramatically sped up their release schedule, and the 1.8 update went very smoothly. They still have work to do to bring back the performance - texture rendering remains unacceptably slow, but it is getting better. Instead of just bitching, what suggestions do you have that go beyond what they are already doing to fix the problems?

I was all set to skewer LL, but after reading the post and response, I'm not sure what you expected. There was no specific question in the original post and the response was measured and offered an individual email for further inquiry.

I think I understand your frustration to be that Robin did not actually give any specific informatin on what, exactly, is being done, but I don't really think that would have been appropriate here.

I am not a LL apologist and was raring to go, but, alas, this just didn't suit my needs for a vitriolic attack on LL customer service.

"Your dissatisfaction with SL must be wrong, our metrics say everthing is SUPER!!!"


"METRICS!!!"

What Robin's post actually said was "We are working on it. We just realized that tracking performance issues might help out and be doing so we are seeing that the level of suckitude is not as bad as before, particularly if you have an awesome new 'puter. Hang in there, we are going to let you know how outmoded your machine is presently. In the meantime, email me with a daily barrage of problems and insults. Thank you, your patronage is appreciated. "

How about composing your dream response for us, your drama does seem to be perplexing an easily riled crowd.

"delusional, self-congratulatory state"?? I don't see it. I see them taking steps to figure out the state of the experience. I personally noticed MUCH less negativity to the latest release on the forums. 1.7 was another story altoghether, but I thought 1.8 was much smoother.

Nowhere does her post say anything like that. In order for them to know what is happening across a wide variety of systems, they do have to take metrics to get a clear glimpse of the type of performance people are getting client side. SL runs on two different platforms, across a wide variety of video cards, driver versions, ISPs and system specs. Without getting more techinical information from users, they often do not see things on their end that some users see. I have rarely had problems with SL other than some lag - other people have had endless problems. They are not perfect, but then I imagine neither are you - you just seem to want to complain.

The post there was pretty damn rude and sarcastic and, if I was working for LL and it wasn't my job to be polite, I'd have given a much more rude and sarcastic reply.

I read it as saying "the statistics dont lie, we are doing good" which is blatent horseshit since the business platform runs so studdered and sloppy that its getting harder and harder to talk myself into logging in to see if it has improved YET. it has not.

over the past 3 months I have logged in maybe once every other week to the same shit. BUT my computers are all above average in build. AND I have no problem what so ever running ANY other online game on them.

I used to beable to run SL, Adobe, and Poser at the same time. Now I even turn off yahoo in hopes that I will be able to run smooth again. I don't. hmmm my system hasn't changed other than a new 256 graphics card. Which I bought in hopes that SL would run a bit better, IT HASN'T. However I am very much enjoying it in online games.

Stop blowing smoke up the asses of your customers and fix your software.

I guess I could try to act surprised that people don't understand why a canned response that relayed absolutely zero new information and did not directly respond to any of the post's original concerns was not the best way to react, but yeah...

Okay, now let's get serious here. We're talking about SL. Think about the typical customer rant. That was a breath of fresh air.

SL is running better now than it ever has since 1.3. The forums have always been awash with people having problems. The only way to concievably make SL run flawlessly for everyone woud be to port it to a console like Xbox or Playstation. That is the only way you can create a game that can work for everyone because the hardware is known and consistant. That's why PC games are in a steap decline and console games are on the rise.

The next best way would have been to go totally Microsoft and Directx which would have prevented a lot of compatability issues with hardware but it would also mean all the Mac users would be out of luck plus the costs would have been enourmous. You don't want to exclude Mac users because the typical user is the exact target consumer for SL but the Mac user base is too small to make SL Mac only so you have to use a format that both PC and Mac can use and doesn't require the payment of tribute to emperor Bill or emperor Steve.

Unfortunatly that has the problem of not being able to use DirectX. DirectX is a really good idea if you want to make windows games as it presents a consistant environment for the game to use. If DirectX loads and runs correctly then chances are your game will work. The down side is you are limited by the constraints imposed by DirectX plus you must pay to use it and Macs are left out of the game.

OpenGL on the otherhand can be used on either Windows. Linux or Mac and is open source . The problem arises because there is no consistant environment for OpenGL to rely on , it is dependant on hardware standards that the industry is supposed to follow. Unfortunatly , many do not follow these standards to the letter. ATI is notorious for that much like Microsoft and countless hardware makers. That combination CD player/ USB hub/ rice cooker you bought in the white box for $15 may not be too careful about following industry standards. Hopfully later revisions of the drivers may fix the problem. That is why LL harps on having the latest drivers for everything. What makes things even worse is trying to keep all the door stop computers still able to play. It makes business sense I suppose but it makes support a nightmare.

LL has tools available to see how the majority of players are experiencing the game. These "metrics" are what they use to determine how the the game is doing in the big picture format. They may not be accurate but it has to be better than relying on the forums as an indication of the game's performance. It may sound like the game is totally unplayable and not worth the download in the forums but in reality it may be under reporting problems . For instance, since 1.7 came out let's assume there has been 500 posts of real problems since the update. Sounds like a lot but considering the 60k number of users that is less than 1%. Any software company that could honestly say they had less than 1% support issue rate would be the envy of the industry and wouldn't even bother with tech support.

As far as LL using top of the line computers, dream on. Most of them are using avarage machines with Nvidia 5xxx series video cards. Viktor and Dan Linden have both said to me they don't have very high end video cards and they can't even test the higher settings like 512m video memory even though it is supported (I think its just a non-working check box so us norberts can feel good about spending big bucks). I think the word "fancy-shmancy" was bantered about when I mentioned my 6800 Ultra.

My post above did note that this was what I thought you were getting at. I reiterate that a hotline response is not the place to give a lengthy treatise on the future plans of LL as regards to fixing performance issues and general updates/upgrades. There was no specific question to address and, as such, there was no specific answer.

You could try acting like you aren't a weinier trying to cause poop.

And anyone who doesn't like the war in Iraq is a terrorist.

I heart false dichotomies.

Oh, and people who resort to name calling while trying to accuse OTHERS of "causing poop."

Whats a "weinier?"

You. You are a weinier. And making a negative out of nothing is causing poop.

I'm guessing they meant:

wie·ner - n.

1. Wienerwurst.
2. A frankfurter.
3. Vulgar Slang. A penis.

Or in general to that sentence, a nicer way of stating: "You could try acting like you aren't a dick trying to cause shit."

I realize what they meant, however I believe "wienier", roughly translated means "I am too moronic to know the spelling of basic words, even when my errors are pointed out."

I try not to say naughty words on the forums, so I go with wienier instead of the "w-word".

Yeah I figured.

I posted about the same time as the one we're talking about. So their response with the same wienier error showed up at the same time and had me rolling over here.

You work for LLabs? Do tell

Kazuo why don`t you take a breather and relax before LLAbs banneds you from the forums. Come on its holidays times relax.